


Days Are For Dreams

by Lostintransit



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-08 03:29:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19098859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lostintransit/pseuds/Lostintransit
Summary: Voldemort is gone but his efforts linger, continuing to destroy the lives of those who fought against him.





	1. Chapter 1

The war changed a lot of things in the wizarding world. The most noticeable change was in the Malfoy family. The patriarch, Lucius, fought against the light and then sent to Azkaban for a life sentence. Narcissa, pardoned of all charges moved, away to a small estate in the south of France. The most notable difference the wizarding world as a whole could see was in the young Draco Malfoy.  
The events of the battle of Hogwarts washed over the general population through skewed reports from the Daily Prophet and hushed whispers heard between the bowed heads of witches and wizards as they rushed from place to place. The most truthful report the Prophet ever made about the war was three simple lists; the lists reflected the dead, the Death Eaters, and the heros. Prominently displayed beneath the Golden Trio and other notable names of the battle waved the flag of Malfoy. The whisperers flocked to darkened corners or bars to discuss this fact.  
But how, they whispered, could the most notable of muggle-born haters and supporters of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named be named a hero? I heard that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had taken over Manor Malfoy. The hiss of mistold truths and untold stories slithered through the cracks of every mind until the only question peaking the minds all was this: ‘How did Draco Malfoy become a hero?’ 

Draco stretched out on the small couch in the sitting room, pages slowly turning as he devoured his novel.  
“Draco, remember I won’t be home till late tonight,” Harry called from the hall as he shrugged on a light jacket.  
“I remember Potter, you are taking your girlfriend to dinner after her game. You have told me about six times already today. Don’t worry I won’t wait up for you. I am actually going out tonight.” Draco winced as he heard Harry stumble and felt the amazed gaze wash over the back of his head. “Shut your mouth Potter, I do have friends you know.”  
Harry coughed “I hadn’t said anything Malfoy.”  
“You didn’t need to, I have lived with you long enough to know that stupid face you make when surprised.”  
Harry barked out a laugh, “Have a good night then, I’ll see you in the morning.”  
The hinges squeaked and Draco called after Harry, “Don’t let her out drink you tonight!”  
Looking up at the ticking clock hanging from the wall Draco finished his page before pushing upwards to get ready to go out with Blaize. 

Draco walked home, limbs warm from the drinks he had shared with Blaize. His friend was back in town from a world tour with his new business. The Zambini’s had managed to avoid the imperialist mentality of Voldemort’s campaign. Blaize’s mother had fled from England to Portugal when Voldemort had resurfaced, leaving her son to his own devices at Hogwarts. With no one breathing down his neck with mudblood propaganda Blaize had actively joined the Order in year four and had worked to keep those, who had no choice but to follow the tug of the chains of family, safe from themselves. He had masterminded, with the sly help of the Weasley twins, sweets that would help alleviate the crushing pains facing the Slytherin house. The man was brilliant knowing just who to tap to get what he wanted. It showed in the way his business had flourished in a few short months. Draco had treated him to drinks for his success as well as to say thank you for keeping him alive  
Blaize had saved his life more than once over the years and the man deserved a medal for his efforts. Draco was pulled from his mental ramblings when he started up the steps to the door and found Potter asleep, head resting on his hand. Draco frowned, then swiped at his arm. Harry jerked awake with a bleary ‘Hey!’ before realizing it was Draco who stood before him.  
“She out drank you didn’t she?”  
Harry slumped comically, “My girlfriend could out drink a fish.”  
Draco laughed out loud as he pulled Harry to his feet. “Come on chosen one, let’s get you to bed.”  
Draco skillfully unlocked the door with one hand while holding Potter up with the other. Swinging the door open Draco’s guard rose; the kitchen light was on. A shape passed in front of the doorway into the kitchen and Harry sprang forward with a drunken speed. He collided with the body in the kitchen. By the time Draco skidded in behind him Harry lay on the floor, out cold. A woman crouched over him.  
Draco assessed the situation in the split second it took him to reach for his wand. The sudden grip on his ankles stopped his hand. A quick glance down showed that the women leaning over Harry was indeed a witch, if the wand pointing at his now encased ankles was any indication. With her other hand she lightly slapped Harry’s face, a hum sounding from her throat as he didn’t stir. The witch looked up from Harry and Draco was instantly transported to a night, a little over a year ago. A flash of memory over took him, a small, broken body he held tightly, the gasping of breath as she struggled to breathe, and then the heart wrenching moment when he found her gone from her hospital room.  
Hermione Granger had returned. 

Draco started at her, she had disappeared from St. Mungo’s over a year ago. Snippets of those awful days stamped through his mind. A small broken cry that was cut off with the sound of flesh meeting flesh in violence. Draco and Harry bursting through the sitting room doors to find Ron lounging on the couch covered in Hermione’s blood. Without sparing a glance to one another Harry stunned Ron and Draco scooped up Hermione from where she lay, the pained whimpers reaching his ears as he flooed them both to St. Mungos. The moment he had stepped from the fireplace she had been taken from his arms, healers calling frantically as they assessed the damages. Draco slipped into Hermione’s room, ignoring the heated whisper of a mediwitch as he did so.  
She lay, her quiet breaths startling Draco nearly to tears. For days he stayed by her bedside, always making room for those who loved her, but unable to leave her alone for fear of her slipping away. Three days after she arrived Harry finally convinced him to go and take a shower, he would sit with her. When Draco arrived both Hermione and Harry were gone.  
Harry had been called to the Ministry, but Hermione had disappeared. To this day Draco couldn’t remember what happened after he discovered she was missing, though he is still banned from the 3rd floor.  
Draco wrested his mind from the past, focusing instead on the now standing witch. A mask of calm slipping over his features he studied her. She had cut off her riotous hair, snipped close to her head her hair coiled in tight ringlets. Her skin had darkened and she wore a sleeveless top. Bold for England in October. She placed Harry’s wand on the table, and the flash of rings dotting her right hand caught his attention.  
She looked up a Draco, no emotions flickering behind her eyes. “I assume my room hasn’t moved?”  
A tendril of rage slipped into his voice as he responded, “How could we move anything from a dead woman’s room?”  
Hermione’s shoulders rocked back slightly in response to the barb.  
“I look pretty good for a dead woman.” Hermione lifted her bag from the counter and slung it over her shoulder.  
It puffed a small cloud of dirt as it her back. Draco stood tall as she passed by, forcing her to move around him, despite his charmed ankles. Draco knew it was a childish power play but a small part of him needed it.  
Draco listened until he could no longer hear her feet on the stairs before turning to Harry.  
He freed his ankles and knelt lightly tapping Harry across the face, “Come on Potter.”  
When he didn’t respond Draco sighed and levitated the unconscious man into his bed. Removing Harry’s shoes, he then covered him with a light blanket before retreating to his own room.  
Draco deliberately changed into his night clothes, slipped between his sheets and commanded himself to sleep.  
Of course it didn’t work. He focused hard on the blackness behind his eyelids as his mind catapulted him into the wreckage of emotions Hermione’s appearance had awakened.  
His bad memories drifted through his mind like bees. Most days they were placid and easily dealt with, but then something would shake the hive and anger the masses. Draco struggled to push them away, to slip into a deep sleep that would hold the memories at bay. It was all for naught, and he knew it.  
‘The only way to get out is through Draco.’ Dr. Bradley’s calm voice reminded.  
Heeding the voice Draco dove into the thickest of the memories, reliving the past.


	2. Chapter 2

The manor had never felt dank until the Dark Lord moved himself in. The life slowly leached out of the old building until only sadness and pain painted the walls. Draco managed to avoid most everyone until one night he was called before the monster himself and given a task. Kill Dumbledore, the task must be completed by the end of the school year.  
He walked away, head held high and stomach reeling. Narcissa came to him the night before he left for the train.  
“Go to Dumbledore, the Order will take you in.”  
Draco whirled to her, sweater in hand, “What do you mean? You want me to leave you alone to him?”  
Even now Draco didn’t know which he he referred to.  
“I have already contacted Dumbledore and Severus will be making an effort to keep you safe as well. You will not come home for Christmas or Easter. You will not come home for the summer either.”  
“I am nearly grown and you cannot stop me from coming home!” He yelled back.  
His mother stood, straight and proud. Draco suddenly wondered when she had gotten short.  
“You are not of age, and as such you shall listen to me. All of your personal funds have been transferred to a seperate account from the family ones. I did not bring you into this world to watch a demon in flesh tear you apart to attack your father.”  
Draco would have fought harder had he not noticed the glimmer of tears in her eyes. He paused, bowed his head, and felt a shudder wrack his body. He nodded once, and was shocked to find his mother suddenly hugging him tight. He clung to her, unable to remember the last time someone had touched him.  
His mind jumped to the next memory.  
An unbreakable vow sworn with Dumbledore as witness. Draco would play his part, but he had joined the Order at the behest of his mother. The Weasley children still hated him on sight, but soon small gifts began to appear by owl from Mrs. Weasley. They were always his favorite treats; the first few times they arrived he threw them at the wall so hard the lemon bars either stuck to the wall or crumbled under the sudden pressure.  
WIthin a few weeks of receiving treats he noticed Weaslette staring at him with an unwarranted intensity. Two weeks later she approached him.  
He sat in the library away from everyone studying his potions homework. She claimed the chair opposite of him, spinning it to lean across its back.  
Draco ignored her, everyone went away eventually when ignored. An hour passed in silence before she spoke.  
“Why did you do it?”  
“Get out of bed this morning? Being slothful is not a trait I pride myself on,” Draco responded without looking up.  
“Why did you join the order?” Came her quick response.  
Draco stood, shoved all the paper on the desk roughly into his bag and strode away eyes stinging.  
The crash of sounds behind him warned that the Weaselette followed.  
“Malfoy this is a serious question!”  
Draco walked all the faster blowing through the library doors with such speed that when he hit a body he didn’t stop to see who he had clipped.  
Distantly he heard the Weaselette talking to someone as he escaped.  
“Hermione are you okay?”  
The next memory rolled forward, sucking him down into the riptide.  
That same day he had slammed the library door into Granger Mrs. Weasley sent another round of lemon squares, Draco ate one and with his mother’s voice chirping about good manners he wrote a thank you note.  
The year slipped by with Voldemort breathing down his neck looking for a way into castle, Mrs. Weasley’s sustaining lemon bars, and Granger joining Weasllete’s crusade to understand the changes in him. He heard the tongue lashing from the infirmary when Granger and Weasllete found out Potter had nearly split him apart in the bathroom. From how fiercely they yelled he could only assume that they had both been briefed on his change of sides. He doubted they would jump to his defence after Dumbledore died.  
Granger never joined him at his study table as Weasllete did all year long. She wandered in sat down and started in on her OWLS homework without a word. A few hours passed before she started to clean up. She paused, catching his eye. He raised an eyebrow in response.  
“Just because you live with evil, that does not make you evil.”  
Without another word she walked away, leaving Draco to gap after her like a fish.  
Hours later her words still ringing through his head Draco remembered his second year, when the young Weasley had possessed by Voldemort. Draco wept quietly into his pillow that night.  
Christmas came and went with little fanfare and fewer gifts. A small watch from his mother, small knitted scarf in Slytherin colors came from the Weasley matriarch. Most surprising of all was the small book from the youngest Weasley, it was a small book of something called psychology. The title read, ‘Conquering Your Family’.  
Draco spent the remainder of the holiday in tears as he read through a book that explained to him that he was a child of abuse and offered tools to get through it.  
When she appeared at his study table after returning from holiday she found an envelope holding two tickets to the upcoming Quidditch match and a voucher for a port key.  
“Happy Christmas.”  
When tears appeared in her eyes Draco nodded once and left the library, a strange feeling bubbling up his throat.  
She would talk to him after that, regale him with stories of her brothers that nearly had him laughing out loud. Slowly he began to respond, to share funny little stories from his own life and enjoy her presence.  
Once Potter walked in on Draco sharing a story and he stopped, stone cold, waiting for someone to break the silence.  
“Can I help you with something Harry?" the chill in Ginny's voice surprised him. He had been under the assumption that they were thick as thieves. Guess not.  
“I just wanted to let you know that Ron is looking for you and he’s piping hot.”  
Ginny rolled her eyes, “When is he not? Anything else?”  
The dismissal was so clear in her tone that even Draco wanted to stand.  
“Nothing we can’t discuss later,” Potter said with a glare towards Draco.  
Feigning shock, she brought a hand to her chest, “You mean we are going to talk? I am shocked!” Her face slid into a light glare, “Go, my brother knows where to find me.”  
Potter sent a long look over the table before turning and leaving without another word.  
Draco raised an eyebrow at Ginny, “What was all that about?”  
Ginny sighed, ran a hand over her fact and answered. “He wants to keep me safe by not letting a relationship happen. He is worried that if Voldemort found out I would become a target.”  
“He’s not wrong.”  
Ginny snapped back, “I know he is not wrong but it infuriates me to no end when he gets mad that I am dating someone who is not him. I refuse to put my life on hold for him.”  
“And now he wants to talk?”  
“Yeah and it will probably be about you.”  
Draco felt a twisting in his chest, “And what are you going to tell him?”  
“I am going to tell him that I am going to continue to spend time with my friend whether he likes it or not.”  
Draco felt as if he had been hit in the head, and it showed because Ginny laughed.  
“Yes, you are my friend.”  
The scene jumped again, Dumbledore being stuck with Snape's killing curse and Draco was immediately grabbed and apparated to the Burrow, where matriarch Weasley bustled around the kitchen as Hogwarts was overrun. She hugged him, fed him and sent him up the stairs to share a room with the twins.  
That summer was the best he had ever had. The twins mercilessly worked at breaking him until Draco responded with an unexpected charm that sent the three of them into fits of laughter and they then used him to pull tricks on the rest of the house.  
Because ‘who will suspect you? No one.’  
The twins and Ginny became his stoutest defenders, and oddly enough he let them. Granger even joined in from time to time with protecting him from Weasel, who still refused to accept that Draco had truly joined the Order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just a heads up, I don't know that I will be updating this regularly. Between a spouse, a tiny human, and a full time job my little fic gets squeezed between grocery shopping and dinner. However I enjoy the story in my head and want to share it with you.

**Author's Note:**

> Written and edited on mobile please be kind regarding spelling errors.


End file.
